302 Milanese
The excavation of a ship sunk near the island of Cavoli between the 1430s
and 1450s has shown that it was coming from the port of Valencia, provid-
ing a direct archaeological source for trade, which was poorly monitored by
the customs registers of Cagliari, but better reflected by notarial protocols of
Barcelona. These describe trade along the route to the islands, Ruta de las Islas,
heading eastwards from the major ports of western Spain, stopping first in the
Sardinian harbors of Alghero and Cagliari and then in Sicily, during a particu-
larly prosperous period for the Catalan Mediterranean Commonwealth.
The Cavoli ship was full of manufactured majolica from Manises headed
for Sicily, with a cargo of tiles decorated with the aristocratic emblem of the
Beccatelli family of Palermo.103 This important discovery of an Aragonese
shipwreck on the Sardinian coast strengthens an interdisciplinary approach
103 Manuel Martin-Bueno, Julio Amare Tafalla, Projecto Cavoli: una nave aragonesa del siglo
XV hallada en Cerdeňa (Zaragoza, 1991).
Figure 11.13 Medieval burial from the cemetery of
the abandoned village of Geridu.